Thai Zoo Sells Panda Dung In Souvenirs

A Thailand zoo has finally found a way to utilise unwanted dung from a couple of pandas - use it to make paper for souvenirs.

The zoo has improvised a traditional way of making paper by using bamboo pulp that the pair of pandas could not digest. The zoo says the pandas, who are fed chopped bamboo, excrete about 23 kg (50 lb) of the pulp a day!

"We know that any kind of pulp can be used to make paper, so we have applied the 2000-year techniques of making paper from mulberry tree in this rural neighbourhood to bamboo pulp from panda dung", zoo spokesman Mr Prasertsak said.

He added the zoo will earn $8,200 a year from selling fans, greeting cards, key chains, and bookmarks � all made with panda excrement paper and dried panda dung - enough to fund the 'project'.

UPDATE:

Since turning the panda poo into notebooks, fans, bookmarks and key chains, the multicoloured paper products have proven hot selling-items at the zoo, with the the equivalent of about $9,000 already earned to date helping balance the cost of panda keeping.

Panda poo paper production involves a daylong process of cleaning the feces, boiling it in a soda solution, bleaching it with chlorine and drying it under the sun.

A zoo staff member explains the popularity this way: "In the zoo, when people see real pandas and then their product they're excited and buy".

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